It’s great having friends all over the UK, especially when they invite you on a foodie tour of their home city. Last week I was with my friends Laura and Becky to discover the culinary delights of Leeds.

We only had 36 hours, but we managed to pack a lot in!

Our first stop was La Rambla, a Tapas restaurant in the centre of town. We met the owners Vivi and Andreas who were both lovely and welcoming. Vivi was keen to take us on a culinary tour and we submitted to her superior tapas expertise and ate whatever she delivered to us. Full review and photos coming soon!

By happy accident the Gin Festival was on, so with a belly full of tapas we headed for the town hall where we were given a glass and a gin guide. There were hundreds of gins to try across four different bars; two offering home gins, one serving foreign gins, and the other was full of flavoured gins. Between us we sampled; seville orange, violet, rose, rhubarb, elderflower, Pinkster and Whitley Neill!

After so much gin, it was time to walk it off….straight to another bar for a cocktail, obviously. The Decanter was a lovely bar with a good choice of wines, cocktails and gin. I opted for the Pink Velvet, which was flavoured with raspberry.

Laura had lined up a real treat for dinner on the Saturday night, Stockdales of Yorkshire. I can tell you there was Wagyu Beef AND Lobster Thermidor. Check back for the full review!

After such a filling dinner we headed back to Laura’s and fell into a food induced coma.

By 11am our bellies were beginning to rumble and so we were whisked off to The Terrace Cafe in Saltaire. The hangovers were held at bay long enough for a visit to Salts Mill and a short walk along the canal.

By 2pm, the hangovers had finally taken hold, or at least mine had! After thinking I’d never eat again after breakfast, I found myself quite ravenous. I LOVE Trinity Kitchen, I think every food hall should be like this. Lots of independent food stalls to choose from, this time I opted for a big plate of South Indian Chicken Curry and Kale and Onion Bhajis from the Chaat Cart, it hit the spot perfectly.

In one final hurrah, we stopped by the Hotel Chocolat Roast & Conch Cafe for some dessert. This was Laura’s Salted Caramel Brownie, no words needed!

Becky and I shared a parfait dessert with cacao pulp. And then we were done…

Except for a farewell cocktail at The Alchemist.

Thanks to Laura for being the perfect host over the weekend.